Will Kline Turn His Back on 90,000 First Graders Plus His Alma Mater

John Kline (R-MN-02) Minnesota roots go back to his spouse’s 534 acre Sheldon Family Farm (which has benefited from farm subsidies) … so many may not realize that Mr. Kline was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on September 6, 1947 and holds a M.P.A. from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, in Shippensburg, Pa.

Shippensburg may not be a school that many are familiar with but it is involved with one federal program that Chairman Kline’s Education and Workforce Committee may terminate …. from the school’s website :

What is Reading Recovery?
Reading Recovery is a highly effective short-term intervention of one-on-one tutoring for low-achieving first graders. The intervention is most effective when it is available to all students who need it and is used as a supplement to good classroom teaching. In Reading Recovery, individual students receive a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher. As soon as students can read within the average range of their class and demonstrate that they can continue to achieve, their lessons are discontinued, and new students begin individual instruction.

Shippensburg University is one of 23 sites around the country and offers training to school districts in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Reading Recovery
Scaling Up What Works
The purpose of this program is to provide competitive grants to applicants with a record of improving student achievement and attainment in order to expand the implementation of, and investment in, innovative practices that are demonstrated to have an impact on improving student achievement or student growth, closing achievement gaps, decreasing dropout rates, increasing high school graduation rates, or increasing college enrollment and completion rates.

Results thus far : 1,165 teachers in 20 states have completed Reading Recovery professional development, thanks to the federal i3 grant awarded last September and the donors who gave required matching funds. These teachers will help an estimated 11,608 first graders who struggle to read this academic year and an additional 52,236 children in their other teaching roles

Combined with an additional $10 million in matching funds raised by The Ohio State University, the $55.6 million total will enable training for 3,750 teachers over the next five years to become Reading Recovery teachers.

As a result, about 90,000 first-graders could receive Reading Recovery’s intensive one-to-one daily tutoring …. but not if Mr. Kline kills funding for Investing In Innovation Fund, known as i3, and is part of the $2.4 Billion cut in Education funding that the Republican-controlled House is considering.

While Mr. Kline’s alma mater and other Universities are beginning to see the benefits of the i3 program, Mr. Kline is looking to kill the funding.

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Kline would throw all 90,000 school children AND his alma mater under the proverbial (school) bus, without a second thought.

The important question to be asking is………who is paying him? Follow the money.

We have a terrible failure rate to graduate students from k-12 in this country, and too darn many of those who DO graduate do not have the skills that a diploma should guarantee.

The fundamentals, especially reading, are essential to a skilled work force, to successful economic competition with other countries, to a qualified and competent military for national security, and to an educated and well-informed electorate.

This is yet another instance of penny-wise pound foolish conduct by Mr.Kline.

I can only hope that when he goes to bed at night, every night, some vestigial conscience bothers him, a lot.

When the hell is the MN Democratic party going to put forward a solid challenger to this guy? He is not helping, not serving Minnesota or the nation.

Hi Dog Gone,
Thanks for your comment.
Agreed … Mr. Kline is a servant for Washington … offering no remorse for Shortchanging Our Future.
My most recent post lists some of the larger contributors to his Freedom and Security PAC … and yes, they are mostly tied to the Pay-for-Education industry … thanks for suggesting that it be updated.

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